Secondly. Other animals, however, besides man, were created in maturity and
perfection, each according to its kind. It was the distinguishing characteristic
of man, that he was created in the image and likeness of God. Many of the early
writers assumed that the word “image” had reference to the body, which they
thought by its beauty, intelligence of aspect, and erect stature, was an
adumbration of God, and that the word “likeness “referred to the intellectual
and moral nature of man. According to Augustine, image relates to the cognitio
veritatis, and likeness to the amor virtutis; the former to the intellectual,
and the latter to the moral faculties. This was the foundation of the scholastic
doctrine that the image of God includes the natural attributes of the soul; and
the likeness our moral conformity to the divine Being. This distinction was
introduced into the Romish theology. Bellarmin116116De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, I. 6.
Disputationes, Paris, 1608, vol. iv. p. 402, a. says, “Imaginem in natura,
similitudinem in probitate et justitia sitam esse.” He also says,117117De Gratia Primi Hominis, 2. Ibid. p. 8, d.
“Ex his tot patrum testimoniis cogimur admittere, non esse omnino idem imaginem et
similitudinem, sed imaginem ad naturam, similitudinem ad virtutes pertinere;
proinde Adamum peccando non imaginem Dei, sed similitudinem perdidisse.” Others
again somewhat modified this view by making the image of God to consist in what
was natural and concreated, and the likeness in what was acquired. Man was
created in the image of God and fashioned himself into his likeness. That is, he
so used his natural endowments as to become like God in character. All these
distinctions, however, rest on a false interpretation of Gen. i. 26. The words
צֶלֶם and דְמוּת are simply explanatory one of the other. Image and likeness, means an
image which is like. The simple declaration of the Scripture is that man at his
creation was like sod. Wherein that likeness consisted has been a matter of
dispute. According to the Reformed theologians and the majority of the
theologians of other divisions of the Church, man's likeness to God included the
following points: —

His intellectual and moral nature. God is a Spirit, the human 97soul is a spirit. The essential attributes of a spirit are reason, conscience,
and will. A spirit is a rational, moral, and therefore also, a free agent. In
making man after his own image, therefore, God endowed him with those attributes
which belong to his own nature as a spirit. Man is thereby distinguished from
all other inhabitants of this world, and raised immeasurably above them. He
belongs to the same order of being as God Himself, and is therefore capable of
communion with his Maker. This conformity of nature between man and God, is not
only the distinguishing prerogative of humanity, so tar as earthly creatures are
concerned, but it is also the necessary condition of our capacity to know God,
and therefore the foundation of our religious nature. If we were not like God,
we could not know Him. We should be as the beasts which perish. The Scriptures
in declaring that God is the Father of spirits, and that we are his offspring,
teach us that we are partakers of his nature as a spiritual being, and that an
es3ential element of that likeness to God in which man was originally created
consists in our rational or spiritual nature. On this subject, however, there
have been two extreme opinions. The Greek theologians made the image of God in
which man was created to consist exclusively in his rational nature. The
majority of them taught that the
εἰκών was ἐν λογικῇ ψυχῇ; or as John of
Damascus118118II. 12; Strauss, Dogmatik, vol. i. p. 690. expresses it:
τὸ κατ᾽ εἰκόνα, τὸ νοερὸν δηλοῖ καὶ αὐτεξούσιον. And
Irenæus119119IV. iv. 3; Works, edit. Leipzig, 1853, vol. i. p. 569. says: “Homo vero rationabilis et secundum hoc similis Deo.” The
Remonstrants and Socinians were disposed to confine the image of God in which
man was created to his dominion. Thus Limborch120120Theologia Christiana, II. xxiv. 2, edit. Amsterdam, 1715, pp. 133, 134. says: “Illa imago aliud nihil
est, quam eximia, quædam qualitas et excellentia, qua homo Deum speciatim
refert: hæc autem est potestas et dominium, quod Deus homini dedit in omnia a
se creata. . . . . Hoc enim dominio Deum proprie refert, estque quasi visibilis Deus in terra super omnes Dei creaturas constitutus.” This dominion, however, was founded on man's rational
nature, and therefore Limborch adds, that Adam's likeness to God pertained to
his soul, “quatenus ratione instructa est, cujus ministerio, veluti sceptro
quodam, omnia sibi subjicere potest.” These views agree in excluding man's moral
conformity to God from the idea of the divine image in which he was created.